Siege of Grand Pré

Grand-Pré (French: [ɡʁɑ̃pʁe]) is a Canadian rural community in Kings County, Nova Scotia. Its French name translates to "Great/Large Meadow" and the community lies at the eastern edge of the Annapolis Valley several kilometres east of the town of Wolfville on a peninsula jutting into the Minas Basin surrounded by extensive dyked farm fields, framed by the Gaspereau and Cornwallis Rivers. The community was made famous by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem Evangeline and is today home to the Grand-Pré National Historic Site. On June 30, 2012, the Landscape of Grand-Pré was named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

The Raid on Grand Pré was the major action of a raiding expedition conducted by the New England militia Colonel Benjamin Church against French Acadia in June 1704, during Queen Anne's War. The expedition was allegedly in retaliation for a French and Indian raid against the Massachusetts frontier community of Deerfield earlier that year. Departing Boston on 25 May 1704 with 500 provincial militia and some Indian allies, the expedition reached the Minas Basin on 24 June, after raiding smaller settlements at Penobscot Bay and Passamaquoddy Bay. Although he lost surprise due to the famously high tides of the Bay of Fundy, Church quickly gained control of Grand-Pré, and spent three days destroying the town and attempting to destroy the dikes and levees that protected its croplands. The croplands were flooded by salt water, but the local Acadians quickly repaired the dikes after the raiders left, and the land was returned to production. Church continued his raiding expedition, striking at Beaubassin and other communities before finally returning to Boston in late July.

Hortonville is a community in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, located in Kings County at the mouth of the Gaspereau River and is part of the Landscape of Grand Pré UNESCO World Heritage Site. The site of Fort Vieux Logis is located by the river at Hortonville, built by the British during Father Le Loutre's War to control the nearby Acadian settlements at Grand Pre. The landing at Hortonville was used in 1755 to deport the majority of Acadians from Grand Pre during the Bay of Fundy Campaign of the Expulsion of the Acadians and is today marked by an Acadian Memorial Cross. The same landing was used in 1760 when New England Planters, led by Robert Denison, arrived to re-settle the Grand Pre area and is marked by a National Historic Sites and Monuments Board plaque commemorating the Planters. The settlement was named Horton Township after Horton Hall, the English country estate of George Montagu-Dunk, 2nd Earl of Halifax, chairman of the British Board of Trade which was in charge of English settlements in Nova Scotia. First known as Horton Landing, Hortonville was surveyed as the intended townsite for the New England Planters Horton Township settlement. However, the town development gravitated instead to Wolfville further to the west and Hortonville remained as an agricultural area. The Windsor and Annapolis Railway, later the Dominion Atlantic Railway, built a bridge across the Gaspereau River at Hortonville in 1869 (re-built in 1911-1912), followed by a station which further developed agriculture and began tourism in the area. In 1924, the Dominion Atlantic Railway deeded a plot of land beside the tracks at Hortonville to the Acadian memorial society to erect an iron memorial cross at what was believed to be the site of the deportation. In 2005 the railway assisted moving the cross to a site owned by Parks Canada closer to the river established by more recent research as the actual deportation site.

Covenanter's Church is a New England meeting house style structure located in Grand Pré, Nova Scotia, and is the oldest extant Presbyterian Church in Canada. The meeting house was constructed between 1804 and 1811, with the tower, belfry, and steeple being added in 1818. The meeting house was preceded by a small log church which was demolished in 1795 in anticipation of a larger construction. Under the leadership of Rev. George Gillmore, who had trained at the University of Edinburgh, a new church based on plain, meeting house lines was begun in 1804. In 1833 the Rev. William Sommerville established a school and introduced a stricter regime; only allowing psalms to be sung as hymns and conducting prolonged services. The congregation was segregated during this time as well, with men sitting on one side of the church and women on the other. Sommerville and his successor, the Reverend Thomas McFall, were ordained pastors of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Ireland. Members of this church called themselves 'Covenanters', as successors to those dissenters from the Church of Scotland. From the time this church became identified with this body, and other Presbyterian churches were built in the community, it has been referred to as the Covenanter Church. From 1894 until its purchase by the Presbyterian Church of Canada in 1912, the church was vacant. The church then joined the United Church of Canada in 1925. Today, as a member of the Orchard Valley United Church pastoral charge, the Covenanter Church is used for services only during the summer months. Adjacent to the church is a small, non-active cemetery where many of the founders of the community, including the Rev. George Gillmore, are buried. Others buried here include Andrew and Eunice (Laird) Borden, parents of Canada's eighth Prime Minister, Sir Robert Borden. The church offers worship services during the months of July and August at 11:00 a.m., and an annual Christmas Eve service on December 24 at 11 p.m. Covenanter's Church was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1976, and was declared a Provincially Registered Historical Property in 1988.

The Battle of Grand Pré, also known as the Battle of Minas and the Grand Pré Massacre, was a battle in the mid-18th century King George's War that took place between New England forces and Canadian, Mi'kmaq and Acadian forces at present-day Grand-Pré, Nova Scotia in the winter of 1747 during the War of the Austrian Succession. The New England forces were contained to Annapolis Royal and wanted to secure the head of the Bay of Fundy. Led by Nicolas Antoine II Coulon de Villiers and Louis de la Corne, Chevalier de la Corne under orders from Jean-Baptiste Nicolas Roch de Ramezay, the French forces surprised and defeated a force of British troops, Massachusetts militia and rangers that were quartered in the village.

Grand-Pré National Historic Site is a park set aside to commemorate the Grand-Pré area of Nova Scotia as a centre of Acadian settlement from 1682 to 1755, and the British deportation of the Acadians that happened during the French and Indian War. The original village of Grand Pré extended four kilometres along the ridge between present-day Wolfville and Hortonville. Grand-Pré is listed as a World Heritage Site and is the main component of two National Historic Sites of Canada.

Fort Vieux Logis (later named Fort Montague) was a small British frontier fort built at present-day Hortonville, Nova Scotia, Canada (formerly part of Grand Pre) in 1749, during Father Le Loutre's War (1749). Ranger John Gorham moved a blockhouse he erected in Annapolis Royal in 1744 to the site of Vieux Logis. The fort was in use until 1754. The British rebuilt the fort again during the French and Indian War and named it Fort Montague (1760). The site of the fort is near the field where the Acadian Cross and the New England Planter's monument are located. Despite archeological efforts to locate it, the exact site of the fort is unknown. Despite the British Conquest of Acadia in 1710, Nova Scotia remained primarily populated by Catholic Acadians and Mi'kmaq. During King George's War, the British tried to occupy further up the Bay of Fundy, starting with Grand Pre. They built a palisade which was involved with in the Siege of Grand Pre.

The Gaspereau River is a river in Kings County, Nova Scotia, Canada. It has a length of approximately 24 km from its source at Gaspereau Lake on the South Mountain south of Kentville to its mouth at Hortonville on the Minas Basin. The lower portion of the river is tidal for 6.5 km until Melanson and there are extensive tidal marshes in the lower reaches. The upper 16 km runs swiftly over gravel beds, boulders and bedrock, except for several dammed sections which form narrow and deep channels. Damming for Hydroelectric generation has resulted in twelve major lakes being connected to the river creating a watershed of 1,375 square kilometres. A major tributary is the Black River which joins the Gaspeareau at White Rock. The Black River once flowed further north into the Cornwallis River but connected to the Gaspereau through a natural erosion process known as river capture.

Melanson is a community in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, located in Kings County.

Avonport is a community in the province of Nova Scotia, Canada, located in Kings County between the mouths of the Avon River and the Gaspereau River. Early settlers included the Fillis and Reid families. It was part of the Horton Township settlement and was known as Horton Point until its name was changed to Avonport in 1864.The Windsor and Annapolis Railway arrived in 1869 stimulating a number export industries including apple warehouses and a brickyard, later to become Shaw Bricks. In 1911, Minnie Brooks became one of the first female station masters in Canada at the Avonport Station, serving until the 1930s when she was transferred to the important tourist station at Grand Pre.The area was used as a burial site for the Mi'kmaq, a First Nations people, in the beginning of the 17th century.Popular tourist destinations are Haliburton's Hill, Wog's Road, and Wiener's Road. The area holds a considerable amount of agricultural land, including that of Haliburton Farm, Fuller Farm and various vineyards. Fuller Farm is particularly known for growing some of the best Honeycrisp apples in the continent. Great views of the Minas Basin and Blomidon can be seen from various vantage points in Avonport. Avonport Beach is a popular tourist attraction in the summer.